Skip to content
OtherSpace MUSH

OtherSpace MUSH

Home of Wes Platt and OtherSpace MUSH

  • JoinTheSaga Links
    • Join the JTS Discord Community
    • Roleplaying Logs
  • Interesting Sites
    • SFWA
    • Brandes Stoddard
    • GameCritics
    • Indie Hangover
    • Tribality
    • RPGfix
  • Log In
  • Toggle search form
  • [OTHERVIEW Q&A] Jeffe Kennedy Journalism
  • [DEVELOPMENT] Fortrain added Uncategorized
  • [SLACK ROLEPLAYING LOG] #rp-tavros: Light Through the Darkness MUSHes
  • Facebook doesn’t make me :( Sample Columns
  • OtherSpace 2674: 10 Things You Need to Know MUSHes
  • [SLACK ROLEPLAYING LOG] #rp-exploration: Portal Lock Antipathy MUSHes
  • Maybe more labels are the answer Sample Editorials
  • [SLACK ROLEPLAYING LOG] #rp-demaria: Fluffpaw MUSHes

Month: November 2013

Five Days and Forever

Posted on November 2, 2013 By Brody 1 Comment on Five Days and Forever

This article was published in The St. Petersburg Times on May 26, 1997:

By Wes Platt

Inchon, Korea, Sept. 15, 1950, 5:15 p.m.

Half of 1st Platoon foundered in a broken-down boat. The other half scrambled up the seawall at Inchon, then were pinned down by a North Korean army bunker.

Third Platoon, a reserve squad led by an untried Marine named Baldomero Lopez, scaled the wall and lobbed grenades into the zigzagging trench that led to the bunker.

Lopez, 25, a gung-ho soldier from Tampa, was not supposed to be here. He was assigned stateside, to a Marine Corps school. But he could not play it safe while his fellow Marines laid it on the line in Korea.

He begged. He cajoled.

The Corps granted his wish. Now, in his first firefight, Lopez closed on the bunker. He dropped to his knees, yanked the pin from a grenade and drew back his right arm for the pitch.

A staccato burst stitched the Marine’s right side. Lopez dropped the live grenade and fell on his stomach.

“Grenade!” he shouted.

With his right elbow, he pulled the grenade beneath himself, against his belly, and died so that his platoon might survive.

His sacrifice earned Lopez a Medal of Honor. In the half-century since, his selfless gesture has been commemorated several times.

A rifle range at the 1st Amphibian Tractor Battalion was named after him. The U.S. Naval Academy named the room he occupied as a midshipman after him. A pool at Tampa’s MacFarlane Park was dedicated in his honor. So was an elementary school in Seffner. The Marines named a pre-positioning ship after him.

At 10:30 a.m. Friday, ground is to be broken for the Baldomero Lopez State Veterans Nursing Home in Land O’Lakes, in central Pasco County.

More than 50 years ago he walked the halls of Hillsborough High School, an anonymous student. Today he is remembered as an overachiever, a soldier, a hero.

Read More “Five Days and Forever” »

Sample News Articles

Posts pagination

Previous 1 … 29 30

Join the Saga Today

Pick your favorite client software and point it toward jointhesaga.com port 1790.

  • You built this story… MUSHes
  • Roleplaying: 10 Hooks for Roleplaying a Futuristic Space Priest MUSHes
  • [SLACK ROLEPLAYING LOG] #rp-exploration: Preparations MUSHes
  • Super simple reboot character creation MUSHes
  • Classic OtherSpace Log: Tangled Webs Online Storytelling
  • [BRAIN CANDY] Some RL headlines of note for Feb. 1, 2017 Science News
  • Mom gets last laugh this time Journalism
  • Classic OtherSpace Log: Trial of Talis Grant MUSHes

Copyright © 2025 OtherSpace MUSH.

Powered by PressBook News Dark theme